Rocket still centerpiece as NKoreans mourn Kim

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, leaves after attending a national meeting of top party and military officials on the eve of the first anniversary of the death of his late father Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
— AP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, leaves after attending a national meeting of top party and military officials on the eve of the first anniversary of the death of his late father Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
/ AP

North Korean military officers attend a national meeting of top party and military officials on the eve of the first anniversary of the death of late leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. North Korea parlayed the success of last week's rocket launch to glorify leader Kim Jong Un and his late father on Sunday. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)— AP

North Korean military officers attend a national meeting of top party and military officials on the eve of the first anniversary of the death of late leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. North Korea parlayed the success of last week's rocket launch to glorify leader Kim Jong Un and his late father on Sunday. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
/ AP

North Korean military officers listen with earphones during a national meeting of top party and military officials on the eve of Kim's first death anniversary in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)— AP

North Korean military officers listen with earphones during a national meeting of top party and military officials on the eve of Kim's first death anniversary in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
/ AP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right under a portrait of his late father Kim Jong Il, leaves after attending a national meeting of top party and military officials on the eve of his father's first death anniversary in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)— AP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right under a portrait of his late father Kim Jong Il, leaves after attending a national meeting of top party and military officials on the eve of his father's first death anniversary in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
/ AP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a national memorial service on the eve of the anniversary of Kim Jong Il's death in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE— AP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a national memorial service on the eve of the anniversary of Kim Jong Il's death in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE
/ AP

PYONGYANG, North Korea 
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un solemnly reopened the sprawling, granite mausoleum where his father's body lies in state as the nation marked the first anniversary of Kim Jong Il's death Monday with sadness as well as celebration over last week's successful satellite launch.

Kim Jong Un joined top Workers' Party, military and government officials in a brief ceremony at the renovated Kumsusan mausoleum in Pyongyang's outskirts after being closed to the public since Kim Jong Il's death. The hall bearing Kim Jong Il's body was expected to open to guests on Monday afternoon.

At noon, North Koreans across the country stopped in their tracks to pay tribute to Kim, who died of a heart attack last year after 17 years in power. On one street in Pyongyang, construction workers took off their yellow hard hats and bowed at the waist as sirens wailed across the city for three minutes.

Unlike the dramatic shows of tears and mourning last year, the mood in Pyongyang was decidedly upbeat Monday, less than a week after North Korea successfully sent a satellite named after Kim Jong Il into space.

The controversial launch, widely condemned by the U.S. and other nations that consider it a violation of U.N. bans against missile activity, underlined Kim Jong Un's determination to continue carrying out his father's hardline policies even if they draw sanctions and international condemnation.

The West sees the rocket as a thinly disguised way of carrying out U.N-banned tests of long-range missile technology, which it says not only threatens regional stability but is also a waste of resources when the country is struggling with a chronic food shortage.

Outsiders worry that in upcoming weeks Pyongyang will press ahead with a nuclear test, necessary in the march toward building a warhead small enough to be carried by a long-range missile.

At the mausoleum, renamed the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, Choe Ryong Hae, the military's top political officer, said North Korea should be proud of the satellite. He called it a show of strength to the world.

Following tradition, North Korea reopened the mausoleum on the first anniversary of the leader's death and was expected to present Kim's body lying in state later Monday. Kumsusan, the palace where his father, Kim Il Sung, served as president, was reopened as a mausoleum on the first anniversary of his death in 1994.

Lined with snow-tinged firs, the plaza has been turned into a park at Kim Jong Un's orders and his father's portrait installed on the façade alongside that of Kim Il Sung.

At a memorial service on Sunday, North Korea's top leadership eulogized Kim Jong Il and praised his son, who gained national prestige and clout by going ahead with the rocket launch.

Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of North Korea's parliament, credited Kim Jong Il with building Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, and called the satellite launch a "shining victory" and an emblem of the promise that lies ahead with his son in power.